A friend and I sipped several ryes recently, with nothing more in mind than just tasting them. We had some 21 YO High West, 21 YO Rittenhouse, 13 YO Van Winkle, and some of the delaware phoenix distillery rye white dog. Our favorite was the 13 YO (by all accounts it ain't really 13 YO rye) Van Winkle, followed by delaware phoenix 100 proof rye white dog (no aging whatsoever), followed by an equally positive assessment of Rittenhouse and High West. This surprised us a bit because we expected the unaged dp rye dog to be much rougher than it was (compared to these long aged and high quality ryes). There was suprising rye sweetness and (in our opinion) the distillation of this rye by dp was careful to remove the poor cousins of distillation that mar so much white dog. These outlaw distillation cousins have been sent off in the vapors to spend their fury harmlessly.

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rage at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light. - Dylan Thomas